Couple acquitted of terror charges released
Montreal students had been charged with planning to join terror group in Syria
MONTREAL— A young couple acquitted of terrorism charges fell into each others arms as free people for the first time in almost three years after they were released from custody at the Montreal courthouse.
Greeted by jubilant family members and the lawyers who helped them beat charges that they had plans to flee Canada for Syria in the spring of 2015, Sabrine Djermane, 21, and El Mehdi Jamali, 20, held each other tight and walked hand-in-hand to cars waiting to take them home.
“I think they’re going to need some time to think it through and hopefully they will work on it to be stronger people. They still love each other. They have a future together and that’s what they’re going to concentrate their efforts on,” said Charles Benmouyal, Djermane’s lawyer.
Earlier in the day, an 11-member jury found Djermane not guilty of each of the three charges she faced: leaving the country to join a terror group; possession of explosive substances; and committing a crime for the profit of a terror group.
Jamali was found guilty only of a lesser charge of possessing explosive substances and sentenced to the time he had served in pretrial detention. The Crown has 30 days to decide if it will appeal the verdict.
Both Jamali and Djermane are also still subject to a peace bond that pre- vents them from associating with certain people, communicating with anyone in Syria, consulting terrorist propaganda, using social media, obtaining passports; and attending a Montreal mosque run by Adil Charkaoui, a Montreal man once suspected by the federal government of be- ing an Al Qaeda sleeper agent.
They will return to court on Jan. 16 to review the need for such restrictions.
“If we asked for those conditions and we are continuing with (the peace bonds), it is because we have reason to fear the possibility,” said Crown prosecutor Lyne Decarie.
On his Facebook page, Charkaoui wrote: “This has nothing to do with security. Rather, it allows the Crown (the RCMP) to come out with their head held high in a legal error that has a strong chance of leading to another lawsuit for religious profiling.”
Jamali and Djermane were both 18-year-old college students at Montreal’s Collège Maisonneuve when they were arrested in April 2015. The school was attended at the time by a number of young Muslim men and woman who either disappeared and joined Daesh in Iraq and Syria, or who were prevented from leaving the country.
One of Djermane’s sisters reported the couple to the RCMP, saying they had adopted a radical discourse and were talking openly about leaving Canada to join Daesh in Syria and Iraq.
The young woman’s best friend also told police that Djermane had said: “If we can’t go there, we have to do it here,” according to a police summary of their investigation that was contained in a search warrant application.
One of Jamali’s friends also told police that he had spoken openly of wanting to travel to Syria, according to the search warrant application.
But when it came time for the trial, all of the witnesses recanted their version of events or changed their testimony about what they believed Jamali and Djermane were planning.
“The Crown presented the evidence at trial that they had, which was reliable, which was admissible and which was available,” Decarie said after the verdict had been delivered.
“Evidence sometimes changes over time.”
When police searched the couple’s rented apartment, they discovered a handwritten recipe for a homemade bomb that had been copied by Jamali from Al Qaeda’s online propaganda magazine, Inspire. Police also found a bag in the home of Jamali’s parents that contained several of the improvised bomb ingredients, such as glue and nails.
But the jury opted to convict him of a lesser charge of possessing explosive substances without a lawful excuse. Judge Marc David sentenced Jamali to time served in pretrial custody.